


Lead By Example

by armoredsoftie



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Coming Out, Declarations Of Love, Homophobic Language, M/M, love via twitter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-03
Updated: 2019-02-03
Packaged: 2019-10-21 19:27:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17648519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/armoredsoftie/pseuds/armoredsoftie
Summary: Tony dropped the phone violently and left it on the coffee table. He threw himself on the chair and closed his eyes, counting to ten.There was no turning back. Of all his stupidly impulsive decisions, this one took the jackpot. Oh no, wait until Pepper finds out. She was going to skin him alive, oh shit.Tony accidently comes out on twitter.





	Lead By Example

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt for my lovely Ironmess, who asked for Stony with the phrase "so what? you did it." Enjoy!

His heart was beating a million kilometers per hour. His fingers felt cold and trembling. The pit of his stomach began to tighten with vertigo. The severity of what he had done slowly dispersed in his consciousness, like adrenaline rushing through his veins.

He dropped the phone violently and left it on the coffee table. He threw himself on the chair and closed his eyes, counting to ten.

There was no turning back. Of all his stupidly impulsive decisions, this one took the jackpot.  _Oh no, wait until Pepper finds out_. She was going to skin him alive,  _oh shit._

Tony got up from the chair abruptly, walking in circles around the chair. He approached the huge picture window of the apartment, and observed the city somberly, feeling like a movie character, brooding into the distance. The city was noisy, chaotic, gray, familiar. An entanglement of circulations and crossed roads, high walls to the sky, eternal itineraries. Chaos in its purest state, chaos from which creation is born. He had rarely thought about the longing for anonymity, the idea of being one of the bunch.

Being born in a golden cradle had opened infinite doors, given him the opportunity to get up one day and decide that he wanted to build a colony on Mars and virtually no one could say no. But the power that money gave him was a double-edged sword.

In the same way that growing up on the spotlight had transformed him into a circus act, dominating the political field from the shadows had been something his father had been expert at, but never Tony. No, Tony was a showman, pragmatic. Politics and bureaucracy were very far from his interests.

But what he had just done? Political suicide. There was no way to recover from this. Humiliation poisoned him inside.

A few soft heels sounded in the distance. With a sigh, Tony turned to see Pepper enter the room.

She took one look at him and all her anger melted.

“Oh, sweetie…”

“Don’t-” Tony cut her. “I don’t need to hear it. It was impulsive and stupid and now I regret it. Can we focus on how to solve this, please?”

She stared at him for a moment, then shook her head. She arranged the papers she carried in her arms and sat down in the chair next to Tony’s computer.

“Read the people’s answers, Tony. No,  _no, listen to me-”_ Pepper insisted strongly before he could interrupt her. “Take a second to read what most people, your fans, are responding.”

There was no denying it, Tony was scared. He had been in the act for years, he was not ready to let go. No, that was a lie. He had been ready for decades, but he did not want to face reality and the consequences of abandoning it.

He sat next to her and with a knot in his chest and opened his twitter account, where less than a couple of minutes ago he had furiously announced to the world that he was bisexual. And in the most  _subtle_  way possible.

 

**Iron Man**  @tonystark · 8m ago

_How about a rainbow suit for pride month?_

5,6k replies  594k retweets   1,3M likes

 

↩  **MAGA** @repusa  · 5m ago

_you heard it here first folks, iron man is a cock sucking faggot_

83 replies   48 retweets   309 likes

 

↩  **Iron Man**  @tonystark · 3m ago

_Yes, and I’m very good at it. Almost as good as I am at kicking idiots like you in the ass._

87,5k replies   986k retweets   3,8M likes

 

“Ok, I admit that I could have handled the situation with a little more tact …”

Pepper refreshened page almost furiously and began to scroll trough the responses.

“Tony for God’s sake, listen to me and look at the responses of the people.”

 

↩  **staaaacy**  @lifeaspuppy · 3m ago

_omg iron man is queer?? My fav avenger is queer??? This is the best thing to ever happen in 2018_

↩  **Jonhy**  @firstgrop · 3m ago

_iron man proving that 20gayteen is here to stay_

↩  **NAT FOLLOWED**  @avengerstan · 3m ago

_GUYS FJKGHDSJ TONY STARK IS GAY?? OR BI OR PAN??? OMG!!!!! I’M SO HAPPY FOR HIM_

↩  **Iron Daddy**  @starkinghero · 2m ago

_sfdhjds i’m crying of happiness my idol is a gay idiot like me_

↩  **Fred**  @threedaysout · 2m ago

_i mean we been knew but I’m so happy Tony came out_

There were hundreds more like that. Some were indecipherable for Tony, but he got the positive vibe from the majority of the replies. The deep anxiety in his gut didn’t fade away, but he did feel relieved. He looked up and found Pepper smiling at him.

“I… I don’t know what to say…”

“Two things: it’s 2018, the political morality is dominated by allies of the LGBT community, and the internet is the domain of the community. If you had said this at a press conference, the result would have been different, because you would be giving the media the monopoly on how they build the narrative. But on twitter?  _People_  dominate the narrative.” Pepper said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Tony frowned.

“I had not thought about it that way …”

“Tony, you have 85 million followers on twitter, you must know your audience!” She rolled her eyes, but her smile was fond.

“Honestly I don’t care, I use twitter to throw up what comes out of my mind.”

Pepper started laughing.

“You’re lucky you’re pretty….”

“Hey! I’m a smart person!” Tony was outraged. He was a genius!

“I would call it more  _selective intelligence_ …” she kept saying, and he looked at her with resentment. Tony knew she was right, but he’d never admit it. “I have to go to a meeting, please do not provoke another scandal before we clarify this one, yes?”

Reality fell on Tony’s head like a bucket of water.

“What are we going to do?”

Pepper tilted her head.

“You could simply tweet again, say the truth in an honest and clear way. But don’t fight anyone.  _Please_.”

“No promises.”

“Tony…” she said like a warning while picking her stuff from the table. While she was leaving she passed her hand through his hair, and he sighed.

Tony contemplated deleting his account altogether for a couple of minutes. Nervous, he looked around the notifications section, and noticed one in particular that caught his attention:

 

**Steve Rogers**  @captainamerica · 2m ago

_All of you people saying nasty stuff about_ **_@tonystark_ ** _get in line, I’ll fight you one by one._

9k replies  35k retweets   76k likes

 

Tony started checking the answers. People were going crazy, answering with insults and laughter, but the vast majority were supporting Steve in his mission to fight homophobes.

Tony could not stop smiling.

He started writing a new tweet:

 

↩  **Iron Man**  @tonystark·1m ago

_hey, **@steverogers**  I’m supposed to be the knight in shining armor, but thank you for defending my honor._

22k replies  173k retweets   830k likes

 

In less than 30 seconds he got a response:

 

↩  **Steve Rogers**  @captainamerica · 1m ago

_how about you thank me with dinner?_

42k replies  802k retweets   1,6M likes

 

Oh shit.

Tony’s heart stopped for a full minute. He stared at the screen, stunned. Did… did Steve just ask him out? And come out on twitter?

Oh… oh damn.

The replies started to appear.

 

↩  **NAT FOLLOWED**  @avengerstan · 1m ago

_Did Captain America just came out of the closet????_

3 replies  498 retweets   758 likes

 

And of course, Steve’s insanely fast response:

 

↩  **Steve Rogers**  @captainamerica · 1m ago

_So what? He did it. I can do it too._

9,2k replies  504k retweets   1M likes

 

Of course, Tony thought fondly, everything is a competition for him. But it fell good to have someone to take the punches with.

_Steve was asking him out?_ Tony’s mind was in emergency mode. He actually had fantasied about asking him several times, but he never had the courage to actually act on his feelings. Steve was always so hard to read, and honestly, way too harsh when he rejected something. Tony had never seen him reject someone romantically, but he was so afraid of humiliation that he had buried his desire. But now? It was all out in the open. Posted on public for everyone to see. It felt good, actually. For Steve to make a show out of it.

Swallowing his nervousness, he replied.

 

↩  **Iron Man**  @tonystark·1m ago

_Oh I’d love to. Is Tuesday night ok?_

3k replies  58k retweets   208k likes


End file.
